Final works on $28m Carenage fish centre

NEARLY a month has passed since Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley officially opened the Carenage Fishing Centre and not a fish has been sold.

The $28 million facility was left to rot for five years during the People's Partnership time in office between 2010 and 2015. In all it took nine years and counting to complete the project. The fish market will have 10 retail spots and a wholesale area that could house at least six vendors. There are also 80 lockers for storage.

Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Clarence Rambharat told Sunday Newsday that the fishing facility should be opened to the public within a week. He added that there are some administrative kinks that needed to be worked out before the facility is handed over to the fishermen. In the mean time, fishermen have been selling out of a shed at the back of the facility.

Carenage Fisherfolk Association vice president Earl Harry told Sunday Newsday that fishermen were concerned about the dust in the new facility from nearby construction and agreed for the completion of other work to be done before it is opened to the public. He added that the new facility will be operating much better than the old fish market. He said in the past some boat owners had more than one fishing stall but with the new system that will not happen.

When the facility was opened on June 9, Rowley said it will be a national facility that will be the best in the country and probably the Caribbean. He added that apart from fish vending, there will be an adjacent building designed to host a mixture of culinary arts and cultural performances to become a place for entertainment. That part of the facility is currently under construction and should be completed by the end of the year, costing $5 million.

Rowley said it was modelled after Oistins Fish Fry in Barbados where locals and tourists would go to eat good food, drink, lime, and be entertained. He said once the Fish Fry facility was established, if used for the purpose it was built, the centre would be a serious economic entity for the people of Carenage.

Rambharat said the fish fry area will have eight to ten booths for vending. He said the fish market is a "significant upgrade" to the plans that were originally designed. Some of the construction that was left idling during 2010 to 2015 had to be demolished and rebuilt, Rambharat said.

The cost of renting the facilities for entertainment has to be worked out by the management team, as well as rental costs for the booths. He added that the Caribbean Fisheries Training and Development Institute, a state company under his ministry, will manage the facility and will establish the costing and all other administrative policies.

Two women, who currently sell outside the fish fry site, said when the area is opened they will have to leave. Donna Forde said she hopes she will be afforded one of the booths when the second phase of the facility opens. She was already told that when the cultural area is opened she and her neighbour, Juliet Mitchell, will have to move. Mitchell said when the time comes she will pack up and go and because of poor sales currently she will not apply for a booth.